Cusco

Together with Jonathan we easily hitched out of Abancay.After the first quick ride we had to wait a little until a pick-up stopped. Inside was a typical wealthy Peruvian family.The man was a newly elected municipal official, his wife was a meat seller at the market. There was also a driver who did not talk until the very end, and their 5 year old son. Jonathan and George had a pleasant ride in the box, while Anastasia was enjoying the ¨cultivated¨ conversation inside. When they dropped us off, the driver of course started asking for money, but got nothing. He angrily threw an empty plastic bottle on the pavement and sped off. We walked to the shoulder and in a few minutes flagged down a beautiful new Toyota truck, and we rode in comfort until Cusco. In town Jonathan had a CS contact (as usual), so we headed there.The place was a typical hippie-run disfunctional community. There was a lot of rosy talk and meditation, but little useful work was being done... Mariesol and Christian, who were running it, had a beautiful picture in mind: a yoga school for the local kids, an organic veggie garden to feed all and an ashram... The brute work of cultivating the garden and building the yoga temple, as well as more mundane tasks were supposed to be done entirely by volunteers (or CS´ers). The volunteers were supposed to work 8 hour days, as well as buy and cook their own food, do dishes and keep the place clean, with the Head Couple happily overlooking the process. Luckily, yoga, meditations and plain laziness got in the way of this busy program...
After a few days of meditating, we went on a day-trip with Jonathan to see some Inca places around Cusco. The Inca experimental farm in Moray and the salineras near Maras were impressive. As true hitchers, we managed to solicit two rides even on a day trip!After we came back, we worked a bit ¨for the children¨ who were supposed to arrive later and surely appreciate all we have done for them. The job we got was to varnish the entry gate. Much better then demolishing the pigsties out back, so we kept slapping the poison on the wood for two days...